Today the bird opens its wings

Maneesha, this is the last anecdote in this series, and you have chosen a very beautiful, meaningful, and significant dialogue for any seeker. The words are from a great master, hence you have to be very silent to understand it, as silent as if you are not. You can sit silently like a Gautam Buddha, but your mind goes on weaving strange and unnecessary thought patterns. And those patterns become the barrier to understanding what we are trying to do. It is not a mere lecture, it is a search together for your innermost being.

Now yesterday, when I told you about the great urge of shopping, at that very moment Avirbhava was thinking where to go. And in her mind she was thinking, "Osho has mentioned Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, London - okay, I will go to L.A." On the surface she was laughing, and inside she was going to L.A. First she must have been going to Bangkok, but because I denied those places ....

Now do you want me to name all the places of the world? But you won't drop shopping.

The question is not Bangkok or Singapore or Hong Kong; the question is that your mind is continuously .... She is sitting here and thinking of L.A. And it is not only her situation. This is the situation with almost everybody; everybody is going towards L.A. - different L.A.'s.

Nobody is absolutely here, because the moment you are absolutely here, you disappear and the buddha appears in your place. You will find yourself dispersing like a cloud; and a new image, a new golden image of pure consciousness will start arising in you, just like a mountain peak. Each silent moment is the only moment when you live.

In a seventy-year life span, if you can live only seven minutes as a buddha, that is enough. But unfortunately, even in seventy years you cannot manage seven minutes. The mind goes on and on like a stuck record, repeating the same thing. The mind can never be original, it only knows how to repeat. Have you seen a buffalo chewing? That's exactly what the mind goes on doing. But all chewing is nothing but chewing gum; it is a stupid act. Even the bamboos are laughing. They know that although everyone thinks he is silent, underneath he is sitting on a volcano.

This anecdote can become a transforming force in your life. These few minutes here can create a new man out of you. Just a small thing has to be done: tell the mind to shut up, and be strong enough not to be involved or identified with the thinking process. It has become our habit. We have almost forgotten that we were born without any thinking. All thoughts are nothing but dust that has gathered upon you during the time you have been growing up, and this dust is preventing you from seeing yourself.

These anecdotes are small but very emphatic ways to remove the dust, to make the mirror clean, so that you can see your original face. It is the face that existence has given to you, not the face and the personality which the society has imposed upon you. Remember this, that your personality is an imposition by others on you. With all good intent, your parents, your society, your teachers have all been trying that you should not be yourself, you should be somebody else. And they provide the ideal - who it is that you have to be.

But unfortunately it is impossible; you cannot be anyone other than who existence has intended you to be. But you can miss your destiny. You cannot be anybody else's destiny, but you can miss your own destiny. And the way to miss it is very simple: try to be somebody else, and slowly, slowly a personality, a false mask which is not you - which consists of the expectations of others - will arise and cover your innocence. And that innocence is your only treasure, your very eternity, your deathless life.

ONCE, WHEN TOZAN WAS TRAVELING WITH ANOTHER MONK, THEY SAW A VEGETABLE LEAF FLOATING DOWN A VALLEY STREAM. TOZAN SAID, "IF THERE WERE NO-ONE IN THE DEEP MOUNTAINS, HOW COULD THERE BE A VEGETABLE LEAF HERE? IF WE GO UPSTREAM WE MIGHT FIND A WAYFARER STAYING THERE."

MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE BRUSH AND GOING SEVERAL MILES UP THE VALLEY, THEY SUDDENLY SAW THE STRANGE-LOOKING, EMACIATED FIGURE OF A MAN. IT WAS MASTER RYUZAN, a very famous name in the history of Zen. HIS NAME MEANT "DRAGON MOUNTAIN," AND HE WAS ALSO KNOWN AS YINSHAN, MEANING, "HIDDEN IN THE MOUNTAINS"

... because he was there in the mountains, far away from people, just sitting there doing nothing.

The silent mountains ....

If you are not doing anything, how long can your mind go on persisting with things which have become out of date, which do not relate to you any more? As time passes the thoughts become thinner, and a moment comes when simply you are, without any thought. This moment when you arrive to the clearance, the opening of your consciousness, is the most precious moment, because it is your hidden nature. It is your splendor, it is your dance, it is your joy, it is your freedom. Once you have entered into it there is no way to be miserable, there is no way to be tense, there is no way to be in anguish - you have simply passed all those things, which used to be your constant companions.

Ryuzan, in his answers, proves his great understanding.

TOZAN AND THE OTHER MONK PUT DOWN THEIR BUNDLES AND GREETED RYUZAN.

RYUZAN THEN SAID, "THERE IS NO ROAD ON THIS MOUNTAIN - HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"

TOZAN SAID, "LEAVING ASIDE THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO ROAD, WHERE DID YOU ENTER?"

Now these are great dialogues; they are no more talking about ordinary roads. Ryuzan's question is not concerned with the ordinary road, but it appears on the surface as if he is asking, "THERE IS NO ROAD ON THIS MOUNTAIN - HOW DID YOU GET HERE?" Tozan himself was a master.

Anyone else in his place would have been a failure; he would not have understood the meaning that there is a place in our being which no road leads to - but still you can reach there, without any vehicle, without any road, without any guide, without any map. There is a point in our being which we can reach because we are there already - we don't have to come. We just have to withdraw our thoughts and imaginations, to drop all that is false, and just remain together in the deep solitude.

Tozan understood it exactly, that Ryuzan is not talking about ordinary roads. He SAID, "LEAVING ASIDE THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO ROAD, WHERE DID YOU ENTER? We can discuss the road later. For the moment ... if you can enter here, why cannot we enter here, leaving aside the fact that there is no road?" He is showing his Zen understanding very clearly; if you can reach here without any way, why can we not reach? He is making such a great statement that can be translated in a thousand ways, with a thousand implications.

It means that if even one person can become a buddha, in his buddhahood he declares everybody's buddhahood. His buddhahood means that man has the capacity and the potentiality of being a buddha. Whether you become the buddha or not, that is not the point; but your potential has been shown clearly, that this is the destiny of every human consciousness.

RYUZAN SAID, "I DID NOT COME BY CLOUDS OR WATER." TOZAN THEN ASKED, "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING ON THIS MOUNTAIN?"

He dropped the subject because Ryuzan's answer makes it clear that there is no way to say ... all that he can say is that he did not come by clouds or water. There is no road, but he did come.

TOZAN THEN ASKED, "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING ON THIS MOUNTAIN?"

RYUZAN SAID, "THE PASSING OF SEASONS AND YEARS CANNOT REACH IT."

Time is not a measurement for consciousness. In your deepest being you have been always here, and you will remain always here; you never move from here. Everything else moves around you - the whole world moves, all the stars move. There is not a single thing except your consciousness which does not move. But your consciousness is the center of the cyclone. It simply remains here.

Ryuzan's answer is so beautiful: "THE PASSING OF SEASONS AND YEARS CANNOT REACH IT."

It is beyond time, so the passing of seasons and years ... don't ask stupid questions.

TOZAN ASKED, "WERE YOU HERE FIRST, OR WAS THE MOUNTAIN HERE FIRST?" From the point where he was rebuffed, he tried another way to bring time in, and to bring it in such a way that Ryuzan would be caught. He asked, "WERE YOU HERE FIRST, OR WAS THE MOUNTAIN HERE FIRST?"

RYUZAN ANSWERED, "I DO NOT KNOW who was here first. I live here without bothering about the mountain and the forest, or who came first and who came second."

It has been a question constantly asked by all theologians and philosophers: who came first? The Bible says that in the beginning was the Word - it was first, and then came God; but seeing the foolishness of it, whoever wrote that statement immediately added that God and the Word are one.

Because the question will be - without anybody else, how can there be a Word? The Word needs somebody to speak it. But if you put God first, the question remains the same ... for centuries it has been discussed. Zen never discusses that question in the old way, with words like 'god', 'creation' ....

If God was there, from where did he come? He must have been here always. This much seems to be absolutely certain: that he cannot have come from anywhere because the creation had not begun yet. It is Monday morning. Where was he last night? And the day before? And for eternity, what was he doing? Because he created the whole world in six days. On the seventh he went on a holiday, and he has not returned since then. Strange holiday ... that long? And to finish this whole existence in six days does not seem to be possible.

Once I was going to travel and I told my tailor, "You know that I am very fussy about my clothes.

They should be ready, without any flaw, by Saturday evening, and there is still the whole week."

He looked at me - a very old man, a beautiful old man - and he said, "Before asking me to finish your clothes in six days just look at the world, what happened. In six days God created this chaos, and you are asking me .... If anything goes wrong, don't say anything to me. In six days I cannot manage it; you will have to find God to make your clothes."

He was a very religious person. He said, "It is because of these six days that the world is in constant trouble. It is a chaos, it is insane, and the responsibility lies with God because he never returned to his office on Monday."

The atheists have also asked the same question, "What was the reason that God, at a certain point, decided to create the world? Why not a day before or a day afterwards? There must have been some cause, or else God is whimsical, eccentric. Just for no reason at all he created this whole chaos."

If you want God to be rational, then you will have to answer it. Christians, particularly, have even managed to count the years, the days, the time, the moment when he created the world. It was exactly four thousand years before Jesus Christ, or six thousand years before now. This is such a stupidity. We have found cities seven thousand years old, in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. We have found skeletons of animals in the Himalayas, ninety thousand years old. And it is so hilarious; when these things were pointed out - that six thousand years seems to be a very short time, and how can you explain a ninety-thousand-year-old skeleton? - one great Christian thinker came up with the idea that God created a skeleton that looks as if it is ninety thousand years old, just to test your trust.

If you begin with one stupidity, you will end with another. What is the need for him to test the trust of people who are not even created? It is in his hands to create people who can trust or not trust. But all the religions are so contradictory.

God creates man, but all religions praise celibacy; they don't allow man to reproduce, to bring life.

God is the first criminal, in the sense that he started the world. And he is a criminal in that he has put inside you a system of hormones which cause you to reproduce. If he was against reproduction, if he was for celibacy, as all the religions preach, then he should have not put in those hormones.

The thing used to be so simple. But now psychologists, biologists and physiologists are all in immense trouble because they can see that even a murderer has a certain pattern in his mind, and that pattern is not created by him; it has come with his birth. He cannot avoid being a murderer.

A man who commits suicide has that tendency in his very chemistry. If anybody is responsible, it is God.

And moreover, what was the reason to disturb the peace of this universe ... the silent stars? What was the need to create Adolf Hitlers and Ronald Reagans and Joseph Stalins? These poor fellows are also creations of God. If God created the world, he has to take the responsibility for everything:

for Tamerlane, for Genghis Khan, for Nadir Shah - for all the murderers. Genghis Khan alone murdered forty million people, and Adolf Hitler murdered thirty million. Their chemistry provoked them to murder and go on murdering.

Just today, Neelam has brought a picture from a newspaper, of a murderer who was a saint and a priest. He was giving poison in prasad. In every Hindu temple you are given prasad as a gift from God, in the form of some sweet. He was giving poison. Eleven people certainly died, and he confessed that more may have died. And he was not at all hiding the fact. He was sentenced to the gallows and was asked what was his last wish. It is a tradition, to ask a man before he dies if he has some wish. He said, "I have only one wish. I want to be seen on the television." And he was shown on the television. Perhaps just to be shown on the television ... a deep desire to be a celebrity.

He had no reason. He could not give any reason, because those people were not his enemies, they were worshippers. They worshipped him as a saint, but he was not becoming famous - there is an ingrained desire, the lust for power. All these politicians who are running to be more powerful, the responsibility is not really on their own shoulders. Why should God create such a humanity which is only interested in death and destruction?

It certainly proves that there is no God who has made this world. It is a more rational, reasonable idea to accept that everything has been here from eternity. There was no one first and no one second.

Jesus was continually saying, "I am the last prophet of the Jews, as proclaimed by the OLD TESTAMENT. I have come; I am the one who has been predicted by the OLD TESTAMENT."

The Jews were angry. They could not accept a poor, uneducated carpenter's son who knows nothing, and is proclaiming that he is the only begotten son of God. Now, nobody has seen God.

The very idea of God has created so much disease and sickness, and this poor fellow got caught in the idea ...

You can find, in every madhouse, people who are proclaiming that they are God. Even on lie detectors ... psychologists could not believe it. A madman was proclaiming that he was God, so they tried to persuade him to be reasonable: "You are just a human being."

He said, "Don't try to persuade me."

So they put him on a lie detector. And because he was bothered continuously by the psychologists always asking the same question, "Who are you?" - he finally decided that if anybody asked, he would say, "I am not God."

So when he was connected to the lie detector machine .... It is just like a cardiogram; it makes a graph out of what the man is saying. If he is telling the truth, the graph is symmetrical. The moment he tells any lie, there is a jerk in the graph. Just as a small jerk comes in your heart when you lie, that same jerk is printed on the graph. When he was asked, "Are you God?" he said, "No!" And the lie detector said that he was lying. He was!

Now, what to do? It is so deep .... Poor fellow, he himself is saying, "I am not," but the lie detector does not listen to what you are saying; it listens to your heart. Because even when he is saying, "I am not," he knows that he is - his heart knows. There is no break in the symbolic graph; it continues.

When Winston Churchill was prime minister, there were at least twelve Winston Churchills in the madhouses of England. When Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister there were many Jawaharlals, but at least about one there is a record; he was in a madhouse in Agra. And after three years of continuous treatment, he finally relaxed and said, "Okay, I am not Jawaharlal. Finished! - Just let me go. Don't harass me any more."

By chance - it was just a coincidence - Jawaharlal was in the city and he was coming to visit the poor mad people. The superintendent thought that it would be a good opportunity to let Jawaharlal release this man who was cured. They had been watching, and he had been behaving absolutely normally. So Jawaharlal shook hands with the madman and told him, "Congratulations. I am very happy that you are healed."

The man looked at Jawaharlal and said, "Don't be worried; if what was done to me was done to you for three years, you would be healed too. You would forget that you were Jawaharlal Nehru. I used to be him, myself."

So many religions have arisen with different concepts of God. Nobody bothers about where God is.

And they have been killing each other down the ages, just because their concept of God is right. A concept has been more valuable than millions of lives!

Mohammedans are killing, Jews are killing, Christians are killing - because their concept is the right concept! And even a single religion becomes divided into different branches, because the lust for power is such a thing.

Martin Luther wanted to be the pope, but he could not see any possibility of it. It is a very secret election, and first you have to move from being a priest to becoming a bishop; then from a bishop you have to become a cardinal. There are only two hundred cardinals around the world, and when a pope has to be chosen, they all come to the Vatican. They are enclosed in a meeting place where there are two hundred small cells. Each one has to sit in his cell and write down the name of some cardinal - only a cardinal can be a pope. And he cannot promote himself like the politicians; he cannot go from cell to cell telling people, "Just remember, don't forget ...." No propaganda is allowed.

And because Martin Luther could not see any possibility of becoming a pope, he declared that the pope and the whole of Catholicism was wrong; it was not real Christianity. Real Christianity was what he was saying. And it created a division; Christianity was divided into two, and Martin Luther became the high priest of the Protestants.

And the differences are negligible. But Protestants and Catholics have been killing each other. It has happened in every religion, and it goes on happening in the name of God.

Zen does not talk about God. It is the only religious phenomenon which has no God, no prayer, and yet has attained to the highest peaks, unavailable to any other religion in the world.

This question, "WERE YOU HERE FIRST, OR WAS THE MOUNTAIN HERE FIRST?" was asked to Jesus also. "If you think you are the son of God, were you here before Abraham, the father of the Jews? Were you before him? If you are the son of God, you must have been."

Jesus said, "Yes, I have been before Abraham."

This is the difference between other religions and Zen. When Tozan asked, "WERE YOU HERE FIRST, OR WAS THE MOUNTAIN HERE FIRST?"

RYUZAN ANSWERED, "I DO NOT KNOW."

Only a man of great understanding and realization can say innocently, "I DO NOT KNOW."

TOZAN SAID, "WHY NOT?"

RYUZAN SAID, "I DON'T COME FROM CELESTIAL OR HUMAN REALMS."

I don't come from gods - the celestial realm - and I don't come from human realms. My consciousness has no designation, no categorization, it is simply universal. I really don't come from anywhere, I have been here.

TOZAN SAID, "WHAT TRUTH HAVE YOU REALIZED THAT YOU COME TO DWELL HERE ON THIS MOUNTAIN?"

RYUZAN SAID, "I SAW TWO CLAY BULLS FIGHTING, GO INTO THE OCEAN, AND UP TILL NOW HAVE NO NEWS OF THEM."

In a very symbolic way, he is saying, "I saw, amongst humanity, that people are fighting over clay bulls." What are your gods, except clay bulls? Seeing that everybody is fighting about thoughts and concepts and scriptures and statues and temples, Ryuzan said, "Seeing that ... and they have not yet settled. I have heard no news about them."

FOR THE FIRST TIME, TOZAN BOWED WITH DEEP RESPECT FOR RYUZAN, seeing that he cannot be entangled in any controversy, he cannot be forced to say things which should not be said.

He knows; that's why he can say "I do not know."

Ordinarily, people who know nothing go on claiming their wisdom. All your Shankaracharyas and all your popes - not a single one is enlightened, but they are religious heads. Now what kind of guidance will these people give? They are going to poison people's minds.

But Ryuzan, a man who has the dignity and courage to say, "I do not know," is declaring his innocence, his childlike purity. This made Tozan bow down with deep respect to Ryuzan.

THEN HE ASKED RYUZAN, "WHAT IS THE GUEST WITHIN THE HOST?" These are traditional Zen questions, which decide whether the master is really a master or just a teacher, a man of realization or just a man who has gathered knowledge from others, from scriptures.

"WHAT IS THE GUEST WITHIN THE HOST?"

RYUZAN SAID, "THE BLUE MOUNTAIN IS COVERED BY WHITE CLOUDS."

The white clouds are the guests. The blue mountain is the host, because it will remain, and the clouds will come and go. That which comes and goes is the guest, and that which remains is the host. But he said it in a very beautiful poetic way. Zen is sheer poetry: "THE BLUE MOUNTAIN IS COVERED BY WHITE CLOUDS."

TOZAN ASKED, "WHAT IS THE HOST WITHIN THE HOST?" That is another traditional question.

Ryuzan answered very beautifully. He said, "HE NEVER GOES OUT OF THE DOOR." The host never goes outside the door. That which goes outside is the mind; it goes around everywhere, Bangkok ... where are you going right now, L.A? It is the mind that goes, but Avirbhava remains here. In you, in everybody, the consciousness always remains in; it never goes out of the door.

The mind travels around the world. The moment the mind stops traveling, you come to a great realization: that you are not the one who has been traveling. You are the one who has not moved even a single inch, who is always inside you at the deepest center, never leaving that place.

In our meditations we are searching for the host. We have all become guests, and gone too far away from our own beings. In our meditations we are trying to come back and let the guest merge into the host. The moment you enter into your very interiority, there is a great explosion of light. You are no more a human being; you have become a buddha. You have become pure awareness, unconfined, unlimited.

Ryuzan's answer is so beautiful:

"HE NEVER GOES OUT OF THE DOOR."

TOZAN THEN ASKED, "HOW FAR APART ARE HOST AND GUEST?"

RYUZAN SAID, "WAVES ON A RIVER."

He must be a great master, of tremendous understanding. He is saying that just as a river has waves, those waves are the guests. And when the waves have disappeared, the guest has disappeared in the host. The river remains; the waves come and go.

RYUZAN SAID, "WAVES ON A RIVER."

TOZAN THEN ASKED, "WHEN GUEST AND HOST MEET, WHAT IS SAID?"

RYUZAN SAID, "THE PURE BREEZE SWEEPS THE WHITE MOON." Nothing is said.

"THE PURE BREEZE SWEEPS THE WHITE MOON."

Just a tremendous beauty, a blissfulness, a benediction arises. Nothing is said, not even a hello.

TOZAN TOOK HIS LEAVE AND DEPARTED.

Hakuyo has written:

OVER THE PEAK-SPREADING CLOUDS, AT ITS SOURCE THE RIVER IS COLD.

IF YOU WOULD SEE, CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN TOP.

If you want to see you will have to climb the mountain top. If you want to see you will have to reach to the highest point of your consciousness.

Another Zen poet:

FOR LONG YEARS, A BIRD IN A CAGE, TODAY, FLYING ALONG WITH THE CLOUD.

These small statements defeat the great scriptures of other religions. In what a beautiful way he says everything that needs to be said!

FOR LONG YEARS, perhaps many, many births, A BIRD IN A CAGE, TODAY, FLYING ALONG WITH THE CLOUD.

Freedom is the ultimate goal. We are all living in cages, not only of body and mind, but of all kinds of concepts, superstitions. Unless we drop all these cages, scatter them, burn them, and become free - just like a bird on the wing, flying away with the clouds - we will not know what is possible. We will not know what our destiny is. We will not be able to realize the joy, the ultimate experience of truth.

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, you don't have to drop Nietzsche or Jesus - you have only to drop yourself. Your dropping Nietzsche will not do. Now you will carry a new idea, "I have dropped Nietzsche, I have dropped Jesus, I have dropped Krishna, I have dropped ...."

But I am here, and these people are not your fetters. You are the only imprisonment, the only cage.

Drop your "I" and with your "I" everything else will be dropped. And whatever remains will be simply a cool breeze touching the white moon.

Before we enter in search of the host, just to make the guest a little light, not heavy, not serious ....

Because this is my absolute and categorical understanding, that the serious will never reach to the host. It is only the non-serious, playful child who can reach to the innermost. The serious remains always outside. The more serious, the bigger is the distance. I want to teach you to love and to laugh, so that you can enter into the host.

Nancy Reagan is seriously ill, so Ronald sends for the doctor. The doctor dashes into the sick-room and comes out a minute later, asking for a screwdriver. Reagan is stunned, but too anxious to ask any questions, so he finds a screwdriver.

Ten minutes later, the doctor pokes his head out and asks, "Have you got a hammer?" Reagan is puzzled, but rushes around frantically and finds a hammer. Five minutes later, the doctor comes out stripped to the waist, sweat pouring from his body, and says, "Have you got a hacksaw?"

By now, Reagan is going nuts. "For God's sake!" he screams. "First you wanted a screwdriver, then a hammer, and now a hacksaw. What the hell are you doing to Nancy?"

"Nothing yet," says the doctor. "I can't get my bag open!"

A Frenchman, an American, and Kowalski go bear hunting together. On the first evening, the Frenchman comes back to camp with a big bear. His companions ask how he managed it.

"Simple," replies the Frenchman. "I saw ze tracks. I followed ze tracks. And - BANG! I shoot ze bear!"

The next evening it is the American who drags a big bear into camp. "I saw the tracks just like Frenchy," he says. "I followed them. And - BANG! I got the bear."

The next evening, Kowalski drags himself into the camp, covered in blood and bruises.

"What the hell happened to you?" ask the other hunters.

"I saw the tracks," moans Kowalski. "I followed the tracks. And - BANG! I got hit by a train."

Bernie Badorsky is drunk as he walks into court.

The judge looks sternly at him and says, "My good man, you have been brought in here for drinking."

Bernie wobbles and slurs, "O.K. judge, let's get started."

Prince Abdullah, a wealthy Arab oil millionaire, is being entertained at the White House by Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

After he has been shown to his room, Abdullah calls Ronald on the phone and says, "Hey, Ronnie, send me up a whore!"

Nancy hears this and is shocked, and she demands that Ronald throw him out of the house. But Ronnie is afraid, so Nancy screams, "Then I'll throw the bastard out!"

In a few moments, Ronald hears the sounds of furniture breaking and screams and curses. Finally, Prince Abdullah walks into Ronald's office; his face is scratched and his shirt torn.

"Wow!" says the Prince. "That was some tough old bitch you sent me, but I screwed her anyway!"

Now, Nivedano, give the beat ...

(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Be silent, close your eyes, feel as if your body is frozen.

Let the guest move towards the host.

Your innermost center is not far away, just one single step.

Don't be afraid, you are entering into your own house.

You have forgotten the way, you have forgotten the language, you have been outside long enough.

The bird has been in the cage for many, many years, but today the bird opens its wings and moves in freedom in the inner sky that is your real home.

In this silence you are a buddha.

Remember it.

Let this remembrance follow you like a shadow around the day.

Slowly, slowly it will become your very breathing, your very heartbeat.

Buddha is not to be worshipped, one has to become a buddha.

Except for that, there is no worship, no prayer.

You don't need any priest, you don't need any scriptures, you don't need to be in any religious organization, you have to be just yourself - silently, peacefully settling within your home.

To make it more clear and more transparent, Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Relax, let go, as if the body is dropped, the mind forgotten.

There is only the beyond, only the cool breeze touching the white moon.

You are the blessed ones of this earth at this moment.

This silence, this moment, here and now, you become innocent; you can say, "I do not know."

You become so grateful that your whole life becomes a simple gratefulness:

gratefulness towards the whole - to the rivers, to the mountains, to the ocean, to the clouds, simply gratefulness without any object.

This is the existential message of Zen, this is the diamond thunderbolt.

You have come home.

The guest is meeting with the host.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Come back, but don't lose what you have experienced, remember it.

For a few seconds just sit like a buddha, reminding yourself of the space that you have touched, the lotuses that have opened within you, the skies that have become your home.

Rejoice in it, and then this very moment becomes your eternity.

Except for this experience there is no God, there is no religion.

One who knows this has come home, he has blossomed in thousands of ways, because everyone has to blossom in their own unique way.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Can we celebrate so many buddhas?